Posted on April 7th, 2021
It was another really beautiful day today in and around Ocean City today and the wind was pretty nonexistent so it was a great day to be fishing in the ocean. I figured I would get some great tautog shots today, but I had no idea that I’d be getting a call about a mako shark.
There is a little piece of warmish water just on this side of the Norfolk Canyon and today a group of guys took the trip in the beautiful ocean conditions to see if there were any tunas in it. Tyler Green, Ryan Williams, Eric Basso, Kevin Ermer and 10-year-old Parker Williams headed to the water shot in the “Seek and Destroy” after leaving the West OC boat ramp this morning found water temperatures as warm as 70.2 degrees. Although they didn’t get any tuna bites, they did catch the first mako shark of Ocean City season….earlier then I’ve ever seen it by the way. The crew was pulling lines in from trolling to switch to deep dropping for tilefish when the final clip popped and the fight with the mako was on. Young Parker was up on the rod and he worked the fish like a pro and got him to the boat where the guys got a good look to determine the fish’s sex and length. The fish met the minimum size for male mako sharks at 74″ (legal size 71″ for males, 83″ for females) so they put the gaff in him and eventually brought him in the boat. No marinas or tackle shops were open when they returned to get the big mako on a scale, but a 74 ” mako is probably somewhere between 175 and 225 pounds. Congratulations to the crew and to Parker on his first ever mako and the first mako for the 2021 Ocean City, MD fishing season!!
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides Charters had today’s feature image locked up today until the mako shark was caught, but he still gets honorable mention with this 14 pound tautog that was brought over the rail today on another awesome tog trip.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a nice weather day and a nice tog fishing day today.
Be hard pressed to find a calmer day. Getting clients bit was more challenging than I’d have thought though. Had to use 12 ounces even in shallow water owing a hard northerly current. Still, get bit they did.
Some drops only one small area along the rail would have all the action; a couple spots saw no action at all, and our last stop was the best. Maybe best action this year.
Some clients took their two fish boat limit, many didn’t.
Tom of Middleville MI (and patriarch of today’s youthful clan) took everyone’s pool money with his tagged 20inch male.
His boys: Justin, Logan, Colin, & Braden were our guest reef builders.
Good to have Flounder George along too. Makes for a nice day on the rip..
Cheers
Monty
